


smelling jasmine, watching little things grow

by lovebeyondmeasure



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Post-Career of Evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 07:50:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13453725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovebeyondmeasure/pseuds/lovebeyondmeasure
Summary: “Pregnant?” The man gave her another up-and-down look, as if searching for evidence. “Never.”Robin spends some time with an unpleasant man, and a pleasant one. Cormoran thinks about some things.





	smelling jasmine, watching little things grow

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by an incredibly sweet anon over on tumblr! This can be considered set in the same universe as [a weekend in the country (so inactive that one has to lie down)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13062654) but can also stand on its own.
> 
> Title from "A Weekend in the Country" from Sondheim's "A Little Night Music"

“Listen, what’s he got that I don’t?” the man was saying, standing far too close to Robin for anyone’s comfort. “Babe, gimme a chance, I’ll show you what a fit man can do.”

Robin was staring up at him with a growing temptation to stamp his instep and punch him in the throat. The man, who smelt strongly of something that was probably called “Musk” or “Instinct” or possibly “Provoke,” seemed to think her horrified gaze was a mark of his success.

Glancing around, Robin saw that the mark had entered the cafe, and that she didn’t dare make a scene or draw attention. This man, however, had to go.

“I’m,” she said, her first words to him. “Ah. Pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” The man gave her another up-and-down look, as if searching for evidence. “Never.”

“Yes,” she said, and plastered a sweetly empty smile on. “We’re very pleased, it’s our first.”

The man seemed about to back away, which would have pleased Robin greatly. The his eye returned to her left hand, her bare finger.

“But you’re not married, though,” he said, leaning in. “Things can change, babe.”

Now thoroughly disgusted, Robin sought for a way out of this. Just then, Cormoran came up behind her, settling a hand possessively on her hip.

“Everything all right?” he asked, making eye contact with the bothersome man. Up close, Cormoran had a few good centimetres on him. The man took a quick step away.

“Hello, love, I was just telling this,” she gave him a sharp look, “nice man about how excited I am about our baby.”

“Our-” She could feel Cormoran tense up behind her, but he didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, I bet he was just congratulating you, wasn’t he,” Cormoran said, his hand sliding up from her hip to her stomach.

“Yeah, mate, uh, happy regards to you both,” the man said, and took his drink from the counter and fled. 

As soon as he was out the door, Robin laughed and relaxed back into Cormoran. “Thank god, I thought he’d never leave.”

“I got worried when you were gone so long,” Cormoran said, pressing a kiss to her jasmine-scented hair. “C’mon, before someone nabs our table.”

Robin’s drink was finally served, and she took it, following Cormoran back to the small table that had a good view of the entire cafe. 

As she sat down, Cormoran said, carefully, “Pregnant?”

She smiled. “He was telling me how he was better than you, which wasn’t half a laugh, so that wasn’t going to get him to back off, so I thought maybe being pregnant would get him away. And you know what he said?”

“What?” Cormoran asked, eyes on their mark but attention focused on Robin. He took a long sip of his coffee.

“He said well, you’re not married, things can change. As though he was going to take care of me and my baby!” She shook her head as she stirred her latte.

“You’re not, though, right?” Cormoran asked. “Pregnant, I mean.”

Robin’s eyebrows shot up her forehead in surprise. “Of course not! Have you gone mad?”

He took another sip of his drink to avoid answering. 

“Cormoran, it would take- well, you know,” she said, feeling color touch her cheeks. “A bit more than that. For that result.”

Cormoran kept his eyes fixed on the mark to avoid her gaze. Now was hardly the time to be thinking about how they’d-

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

Robin shook her head at him, fondly. “Men,” she sighed, taking a sip of her latte. “Let me know if she heads for the loo, I can accidentally bump into her and see if I can’t get something out of her. Maybe see if she knows she’s not the only side girl.”

Cormoran nodded, pleased at how easily she brought things back to the job. He’d been sure that acting on his feelings for Robin would be a terrible mistake, but so far it hadn’t been. 

So far, in fact, it had been rather good. They’d found themselves halfway into a relationship without ever once speaking about it. And now, well. 

Cormoran was horrified to find how easily his mind turned to Robin being pregnant. She’d always seemed like a creature meant for marriage, but he’d chalked that up to only having known her as a girl excited to be married. Now, though, he knew her as a woman, able to handle her own affairs, strong and self-sufficient and no one’s fool, and he still saw her as meant for marriage. Possibly even to him.

And they’d barely even spoken about what they were- the idea of calling her his “girlfriend” was laughable. But she was his partner, in every way that mattered to him, and without trying he could see a future in which they worked together, lived together, built a life together. 

He looked at her over his cup. She was tapping away on her phone, the very picture of an inconsiderate girlfriend, but he knew from the furrow of her brow that she was working on something for the office, probably taking care of emails or updating their joint calendar.

He’d never wanted children, never once. His own childhood had hardly prepared him for being a father, and all his years with Charlotte, the idea of bringing a baby into their terrible fractured relationship had never seemed especially smart. But Robin would be a good mother. She would raise smart kids and would love them thoroughly, would build a stable and loving home for them. 

Cormoran looked at their mark, who seemed to be doing a truly awful job of breaking up with one of his many girlfriends. The girl was crying now. He looked back at Robin, who was still typing but had her head tilted in such a way that he knew she was keeping tabs on the scene.

She looked up at him and smiled, a real, bright smile, the sort she didn't fake. He felt his heart skip a beat.

“That won’t ever be us, right babe?” she asked, loud enough to be hear by anyone who might be paying attention to them.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. He looked her right in the eye. “That won’t ever be us.”

And Robin, who hadn’t the foggiest clue about the direction his thoughts had been tending, felt a warmth suffuse her bones. This man sitting across from her, odd and smart and hurt and strong, was a good man, and she was happy to be sharing this afternoon with him. She would happily spend many more with him, just like this.


End file.
